1.1.7-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 1.1.7- Cravatte Every time I see ‘Cravatte’ I think ‘cravat.’ I wonder if they’re pronounced the same. I don’t speak French so I would probably mangle the pronunciation and pronounce them the same way. I hope my pronunciation on one of them would be right. The first time I read the book I thought the Bishop was really selfish to be so casual with his own life when he knew that his death would be the end of his sister and servant and that, even moreso, he does it in a way that directly endangers their lives as well. He does not endanger anyone else when he goes off alone on a dangerous bandit-ridden trek and I’m starting to view the situation differently. The Bishop is simply the anti-Bossuet. Everything bad and unlucky happens to him and everything fortunate and good happens to the Bishop. Even when he’s being robbed it still affords him the opportunity to save a soul in a way that he never would have been able to if certain people hadn’t stolen from him. Of course he’s not particularly concerned about his own safety or finances! He’s had years of experience of things just sort of working out for the best. I’m half-serious about this. Things just always go really well for him despite how carelessly he can behave. That’s why he was so confident that he could do that ritual despite not having what he needed for it. I do have to wonder what ‘good friends’ that community was, though, if it’s not that far away but he hasn’t gone to see it in three years. And for all his ‘I must go alone so no one else is in danger’, he’s going to bring a child as a guide? A child to put in danger? I know he needs a guide but that’s a bit of cognitive dissonance there. I do have to wonder why, exactly, Cravatte chose to give all of that plunder back. He’s just overwhelmed by the goodness of a man he never met? Secretly extremely religious (despite his stealing of the religious artifacts?) Commentary Pilferingapples Aside from now totally embracing Myriel-as-megacounselor-and-badass therapist, I got nothin’ on the Bishop and his carelessness/faith. The child, though, if a guide, may be from that region? If the kid was just sent as a messenger (maybe Cravatte made a point of never attacking children? Or the poor? Low profit there anyway…which would also have protected the Bishop) it may have been more a matter of them just going back home? As for the not-that-far bit, I don’t know about France, but I know in the sticks here “not far” means something a bit different than it does to my city-dwelling acquaintances…like “can I drive there in less than half a day”. Add in potentially mountainous terrain, a perhaps VERY small community, and an apparently rather spread-out diocese for the Bishop to visit on foot or donkey…I can see it being a while between visits. And ARGH A BOSSUET REFERENCE, I was fighting it SO HARD in this chapter but you did it for me. We are so hopeless, y’all.